


Burn Through My Heart

by A_Kristjansson



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:49:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25956277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Kristjansson/pseuds/A_Kristjansson
Summary: September 19 2025. After a long meeting discussing the mission with what remained of the Avengers, Bucky, Sam and Wanda landed in a forest two miles outside Portree, Scotland. Ordered to find and retrieve a threat in order to prevent more deaths, they were on the hunt for the newest interest of the world government’s: Daylighter.Their target was a young female who had recently turned heads by killing a member of the former British Royal Family. Another science experiment gone wrong woven into a family tragedy, who seemed remarkably similar to a failed "Winter Soldier" experiment in Bucky’s eyes. He had volunteered for the mission after reading the information about the girl, knowing he’d likely be thrown into it anyway now that the other Avengers deemed him mentally capable, and he only hoped that she hadn’t gone through the torture that he had over the years. No one else deserved to experience that.Barring an abandoned farm and the small cottage that the girl lived in, there was no civilization for miles. A great hiding spot for a fugitive, and where Bucky met the one person he would ever care about more than Steve Rogers. Even if she did rip into his calf with a dagger upon seeing his face for the first time.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), Natasha Romanov/Sam Wilson, Peter Parker/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s), Wanda Maximoff/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there ^^
> 
> I've seen that a few people have given this fic kudos since it published yesterday which I'm so buzzing about!
> 
> But if you really like the story, could you leave a nice comment too expressing what you like about it? I'm about to start 2nd year of my uni course on the 8th of September so my motivation for writing is about to take a dive off a very high cliff, and I need the encouragement to keep writing!
> 
> Even the smallest comment would really help me, and I'll answer any questions you have about the fic or anything else :3
> 
> Thank you for reading this story ^^

_The shadow of the Black Cuillin rose up to meet the sky in an expression of power and dominance over the landscape, moonlight from above casting lines across its ridged surface and shedding the middle of the night in a cold, white light. It was late, the surrounding hills shrouded in darkness, minus the smouldering wreckage of a Mazda CX-5 burning at the foot of the mountain._

_A human silhouette, tall and male, approached the smashed chunk of glass and metal as the small fires dotted around in the frame rose higher. He reached his hands into the car and dragged out another figure, smaller and struggling, who wriggled in his grip and slumped down onto the ground, coughing violently._

_‘Meghan!’_

_‘Meghan, help!’_

_‘Get us out!’_

_The burning smell of the car wreck swarmed the smaller figure’s nostrils as she coughed smoke out of her lungs, staring up at the man who saved her with wide eyes before she made a desperate move to get her dad and brother out of the car, pulling at the smashed door in an attempt to force it open._

_‘It won’t work.’_

_‘I have to try!’_

_‘They’re dead already.’_

_‘They’re still screaming!’_

_Bang!_

_The explosion threw her back from the car while she stood on shaky legs; the force sending her down onto the riverbank and causing her to hit her head on a rock, her vision blacking out._

Meghan woke with a start out of yet another nightmare, the end of the memory coming with her head injury and forcing her upright in bed, sweat soaking the mattress underneath her. The early morning sun invaded her room in slithers of bright light peeking through the gaps between the curtains and the window frames. The lines illuminated her door, a sunlight monster cast in shapes across the pale wood and making her daggers wedged into the surface glint.

Knife marks covered the wood, scattered up and down the door - the chief victim of her aggression when the stray deer that wandered onto the farm just wouldn’t cut it for the rage she needed to release. The animals didn’t come often, of course, having learned to stay away from the dangerous woman who threw knives at them, but she was grateful for the appearance of a few every six weeks so she could have a treat and avoid the supermarket.

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed once she could feel her body again, staring down at her hands and the scars that ran from her forearms to her jawline. They were the dark red colour of rage and instinctual anger on first glance, from the stress that came with her nightmares, but the colour faded away from her skin once her nervous system was calm again. She wiggled her fingers to fill them with blood again, making fists as a clattering sound came from the kitchen.

‘You bastard cat! Get off the counter!’

She snorted on instinct despite not feeling the humour, her eyebrows furrowing at the sound that happened whenever her master interacted with the cat. The sound of his voice calmed her frayed nerves and gave her enough energy to lift off the bed, walking into the bathroom that the door to her left led to.

_Dirt weighs you down on missions. Always shower before breakfast._

Less dirt left her skin this time, the last mission almost a week ago now, but the mud from swimming the day before flowed down the drain with the water, washing away another bracing cold training exercise. She stepped out of the shower and dried off with the biggest towel in the bathroom, letting the water on her scars turn to steam by thinking about her primary target and then running a comb through her hair. Her master liked it short, and it made it easier to handle - one less thing for targets to grab onto in desperation.

Rummaging through her wardrobe, she pulled out a white t-shirt and black trousers, slipping them onto her frame with ease. She preferred plain clothes, even if white shirts got stained far too easily, but most of the year she could wear a simple sports bra and heat herself up during training. Clark preferred plain colours too.

_Uniformity helps control._

She wandered through to the central part of the cottage once she managed to rip her daggers out of the door, holding them up at the ready before throwing them at the man-sized targets dotted around the room. She hit each one in the centre of the heart, eyes and throat, staring into the icy blue eyes of her opponent whose face was half-covered in a mask. Her scars turned red with the rage that bubbled to the surface from just the sight of him.

_Weak points are key. Aim for the heart, eyes and throat every time._

When she had efficiently murdered the wooden men, she moved onto the kitchen, feeling the touch of her master’s hand on her shoulder.

_Always eat and drink, make it varied. Never touch sugar._

She turned her head at the distinct feeling of warm breath on her ear, but no one came into her line of sight. Her master, Clark Brodie, was still dead. His body was six feet underground with a gravestone marking his resting spot, but his voice lived rent-free in her mind, and the feeling of his breath in her ear never ceased as she filled a glass with water and started a pot boiling to make eggs.

Meghan Argyle was a failed experiment in scientific terms, all of her features arising from her body’s inability to synthesise the serum that made Steve Rogers into Captain America. The man who made her wanted an assassin better than the Winter Soldier himself, and that’s precisely what he got, but much deadlier than he had expected.

Her powers came from the rage inside, the fight-or-flight instinct singed to create a new reaction to danger, which Clark manipulated to his advantage. He trained her for two years before the Blip, moulding her into the perfect killing machine and cementing an understanding in her head that he was doing the right thing. He was helping humanity by getting her to kill people.

_They have to be erased for the world to heal its wounds._

Everyone that was a threat to Clark’s dream for the world was a target, and if Meghan disobeyed, he fried her neurons again with electricity to kill any presence of mind she had used to go against him.

Her primary target was James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier, whom her master trained her to kill on sight. He was a danger to her life and Clark’s plan, so he manipulated her rage and anger to direct it at the assassin, training Meghan’s instincts to target him the moment she saw his face or the metal arm he sported.

There was no room to think about who the soldier was once she saw his face, which meant that even if he tried to save her life, she would still attempt to kill him while he was helping her. His face, his eyes, the videos of his murders - they were all burned into her memory, with Clark’s voice attached that reminded her of everything Barnes would do if he got his hands on her.

_Eat your food, don’t dawdle. Training next._

Meghan let out a sigh as she sat down on the couch with her boiled eggs and toast, eating in silence. Something clattered on the bookshelf and her scarring turned red, but when she saw it was just the cat knocking a book down, she relaxed again, shaking her head.

‘Stop jumping on the furniture, Anarchy!’

The cat just stared at her, expression blank as he leapt from the bookcase to the coffee table and then onto the couch, rubbing his nose against her wrist when she held it out to him. Anarchy had been her only company since Clark’s death a year before. She fed him, made sure he didn’t go to the bathroom in the house, and otherwise allowed him to roam free around the estate they lived on, knowing the cat would always come back even if he got over the fence. He hadn’t exactly been fond of her at the start, hissing whenever she came close, but Anarchy soon relaxed in the cottage, accepting the death of his former owner and allowing the failed experiment to care for him instead.

She ate in the quiet of the room with Anarchy curled up on her thigh, making sure to polish off every bite so that the voice of her master scolding her about wasting food didn’t invade her mind for the rest of the day.

The training was the same as it was every day. Throwing knives, shooting darts, breaking through planks of wood with her fists. It all melded together into what felt like a single hour of combat skills. In reality, Meghan was letting her aggression out for over eight hours, focusing all of her energy on her hatred and fear of the Winter Soldier to make fire run through her veins.

She beat the punching bag hanging from the tree to a pulp, snapped one of the knife targets in half and shot every dart into the centre of the wooden Bucky’s heart until she was panting from the exertion that her rage put on her body. The forest was a wreck in her wake, scorched lines on trees and patches of dead grass all around her feet, destroyed by their unfortunate fate to end up living near a walking flamethrower.

_You can do better. Try again tomorrow._

His warm breath was on her ear again as her chest heaved up and down and she put out a fiery spark in the grass with her hand, sighing.

She could always do better. If she didn’t keep her skills in perfect condition, Barnes would find her and kill her. That was always the threat - the Winter Soldier was always waiting in the shadows.

_Read now. You’ll tire yourself out if you keep going. Always keep strength stored in case of an attack._

Meghan sighed, sitting up and stretching her arms and legs before jumping to her feet, wandering back to the cottage she resided in and heading for the library. It had become somewhat of a safe space for her since Clark’s death, providing an extra layer of peace from the noise outside and the voice in her head.

She kept the computers in there, connected to the electricity grid and giving power to the security system under the ground that surrounded the estate. An extra precaution, Clark had always called it, to alert them to the danger before the danger could catch them by surprise. There had been no legitimate alerts yet, only a few foxes that got burned to a crisp trying to clear the fence, but the young girl kept the system running just in case. Even after a year without Clark, he was still in her head, so she wouldn’t get away from his paranoid delusions about keeping the cottage safe.

Anarchy joined by her side and stretched himself out on the back of the couch, yawning. At this point, Meghan had read every book in the library, so she’d used Clark’s bank account to buy more from the local bookstore, enjoying the stories in them without feeling any genuine emotion about the characters. She just knew the books were interesting enough for her to want more.

The couch in the library was bigger than the one in the living room, stretching out along the ground floor of the dome-shaped room and allowing her more space to stretch out like Anarchy did. She’d picked out a fantasy novel most recently, the cover appealing to her in an abstract way, so she slipped out the bookmark and began to read.

There was only one window in the dome of the library, the wide frame letting in plenty of light for her to read by during the day. Her scars were pale, almost the original colour of her skin. All aggression in the female assassin had bled out through her punches, putting her in enough of a peaceful doze to be able to read her book without turning the pages to ash.

Silence prevailed around her for an hour at least before Anarchy’s head lifted from his slumber, and he stared in the direction of the window with a hiss.

‘What’s wrong?’ Meghan frowned when she noticed the cat’s hackles raised and followed his gaze to the window, her blood running hot at the sight of the man moving quickly to hide behind the brick of the dome again, clearly realising he’d been spotted staring in.

The Winter fucking Soldier.


	2. Chapter 2

‘This is the third suspicious death in the past six months. They’re all figures in the public eye, all within controversial sectors, and now the third one has been revealed as a former British Royal. International relations are tense with England, Ms Romanoff, we need this threat brought in before she does any more damage.’

T’Challa had been running the video conference for an hour now, a permanent frown set into his features as he explained the events unfolding in the old United Kingdom. There were few people in the meeting room that Bucky sat in, only Sam and Natasha occupying other spots at the table, but various holograms stood around the room, each projecting the image of the different Avengers, retired and active alike.

Natasha sighed to his left and he watched her nod in the reflection of one of the holograms, rubbing a hand over her forehead and turning to the remaining heroes.

‘Who is best suited to take her in? The injuries on the victims were severe, we don’t need anyone getting too close unless they can fight her effectively.’

‘I’ll go! I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland!’

‘You’re not going! He’s not going.’ Tony shook his head at the camera while Peter pouted in the background, going back to pouring juice for Morgan.

‘Anybody else want to volunteer?’

‘I’ll go.’ Bucky responded, his tone sour from the emotion he was trying to keep in.

The way the murders had been progressing reminded him of how he used to kill years before, the look in the girl’s eyes identical to the dead expression on his face whenever he stared back into a surveillance camera. He knew it would never happen again after Shuri had worked her magic on his head, but seeing the girl in the footage look so blank was hard to take.

The air around him went cold as the room of people took in what he said before Rocket spoke up from his seat on the Benatar, finishing picking something out of his needle teeth when they all looked to him for an answer.

‘Are you sure that’s a good idea, sniper boy? I’m guessing she’d turn that hand of yours into scrap metal if you even got close enough to touch her with it.’

‘Then I won’t let her touch it. I’m going on the retrieval mission.’ He insisted, crossing his arms over his chest and furrowing his eyebrows at Sam who gave him a questioning look, most likely wondering why he was being such a grumpy old man that day.

When Rocket shrugged and Natasha nodded with a rub of her temples, the conversation turned back to the team that would be taking their target in. In the end, it was decided that Bucky, Sam and Wanda would go to Scotland, Sam arguing that Wanda would be a helpful person to have if they had to protect themselves against the girl’s burning abilities. So they moved onto planning.

‘We have footage of the target driving on the same black motorcycle from the city of Finham all the way through England and into the Scottish state, where she arrives in Portree and then vanishes down a side road that has no cameras. According to satellite footage, there’s a cottage and barn at the end of this road, so we can presume that’s her home base.’ Shuri explained as she walked into the shot of the hologram, tapping at a tablet in her hand and cursing at it every so often.

The princess took a moment before speaking again, addressing the others on the team.

‘We’ve run her face through the database, and there was only one match. Meghan Heather Argyle, nineteen years of age, living with her father and brother.’

Sam shrugged in his seat, looking at the information that Shuri was sending through on his own tablet and frowning at what it said.

‘She’s dead.’

‘So is this a Zemo situation or a Bucky situation?’ The Falcon raised an eyebrow at Shuri who shook her head, bringing up some more documents which Bucky leaned over to look at as well.

‘Miss Argyle died in a car accident according to the official report. Her father and younger brother were also in the car at the time and are confirmed fatalities.’

‘What about her mother?’

‘That is the right question, White Wolf, and it has an interesting answer. According to medical records and her death certificate, Heather Argyle died after two years of stage four bone cancer when Meghan was sixteen.’

Everybody around the room frowned at that and they were quiet until Wanda asked the question that everybody was thinking about.

‘She was sick and died because of it. Why is that so interesting?’

‘Because her doctor was Clark Brodie, whose wife was poisoned under mysterious circumstances but her death was classified as accidental. She died only three months after Mrs Argyle, and in 2017, the car accident that killed the rest of the Argyle family took place. Since then, Clark Brodie has been off the grid, assumed dead as he hasn’t shown up for work, and the murders of ex-political figures have taken place between then and now.’ Shuri explained, bringing up some extra news articles for them which cited each of the incidents she referred to.

The team all perused the items while more questions were asked. Bucky had distracted himself from the conversation at this point, too focused on looking through the articles and the pictures that came with them as everyone else discussed amongst themselves.

Clark Brodie didn’t look like a mad scientist, he didn’t even look like a danger to the public. Not even when the White Wolf squinted could he see the darkness that hid behind his own torturers’ eyes, but he was certain that the man was the culprit. Every shred of evidence they had seemed to point to his culpability and the dead expression on their new target’s face was enough to prove to him that something fishy was going on.

‘So Bird-brains, Sourpuss and Witchy will take a jet to Portree and attempt to retrieve the threat, great, but we’ll still need a containment unit for her until we can figure out the full extent of her powers.’ Tony pointed out as Peter yawned behind him and carried Morgan over on his hip so they were in better view of the camera.

‘We could put her in the mirror dimension?’

‘Only sorcerers can use the mirror dimension. It isn’t accessible to humans.’ Stephen explained from his perch on the floor of the Sanctum, sipping the tea beside his hand before waving to Shuri.

‘Don’t you have some fancy vibranium reinforced cage you can put her in?’

The Princess shook her head before bringing up the autopsy report of the most recent victim.

‘According to the nice woman who I spoke to on the phone, the autopsy that she carried out revealed that the burns caused by our target were severe enough to show that vibranium would likely melt under her power.’

‘That’s impossible. Vibranium melts at over five thousand Fahrenheit, no human could produce that much heat, never mind control it like she’s done.’ Tony shook his head as he looked at the pictures of the victims, glancing back up at Shuri who nodded, bringing up a document that detailed the autopsy report.

‘Miss Argyle appears to have the power and control needed to produce that much heat onto localised areas of the body. Every injury is a handprint, and the burns on the third victim’s hands suggest that she tried to fight back, but the target’s skin was too hot to touch as well.’

‘So she’s dangerous.’

‘And how.’ Sam laughed but the fear behind his voice was unmistakable.

Judging by everybody’s facial expressions, no one wanted to take this girl on, much less be in charge of bringing her in to be contained. Bucky ran a hand through his hair before nodding to himself and looking up at the others just as T’Challa spoke again.

‘You can now see why the governments of the world are so concerned about this girl being in a public place. The Scottish State are aware of the threat she poses and they don’t want her within their borders any more than any other country does, so we’ve been called in to contain her with the resources we can spare.’ He told them with a slight smile, looking as worried as the rest of them.

Every hero in the room was quiet then while everyone considered the consequences of the mission they were about to embark on and whether it would work out well in the end. No one spoke for at least five minutes before Peter was piping up with another idea, perching himself on Tony’s knee so he was in the shot of the hologram to be seen clearly.

‘I’ve been working on the durability of my suit fabrics in terms of the temperature they can survive against, so what if I made sheets of fabric strong enough to take say six thousand Fahrenheit, and I can cover the inside of the cage with them?’ He suggested, leaning forward into the camera with curious eyes when Shuri brought up the specifications for the cage she had planned to construct from vibranium.

His brown eyes flickered over the information and he nodded occasionally while babbling mostly to himself. Everyone other than Shuri, Tony and Bruce seemed lost to what the teen was talking about, staring at him with confusion, so Bucky leaned over to Sam and Natasha, seeing them already whispering about something.

‘What’s the whispering for, eh?’

‘Trying to avoid being heard by boy genius otherwise he’ll start rambling about the mission too.’ Sam rolled his eyes, shifting his seat closer to the table as Natasha brought up a map of where they were heading to.

‘So the area of Scotland that she’s located in is quite rural. There are no buildings taller than three floors but a lot of hotels and other tourist spots so there’s a lot of potential for being identified.’ She pointed out, zooming in on the town centre to show them the multitude of buildings that were identified as accommodation and restaurants.

‘That’s what we don’t want, so the plan is that you’ll land cloaked half a mile away from her cottage, ensuring that no locals will see you, and you’ll get out of there as soon as possible with Daylighter.’

Daylighter. That had been her codename since they found the footage of her murdering the ex-Princess. She always killed during the day, and her arms lit up like fireworks in full view of the camera as she burned through her victims. It was the most accurate codename they’d had in all the years of SHIELD and Earth Defense - it was only fitting that it identified the most dangerous target they’d ever had to capture.

Bucky and Sam nodded along as Natasha went over the plan, looking over their landing site.

‘Simple get in and get out job. With any luck, you’ll sedate her without being seen. Can’t guarantee that though.’ The redhead told them, sliding the information for their jet over to Bucky.

‘This is the password for the vehicle you’re taking. Take off is at eight Friday morning so it’ll be five at night when you arrive.’

Both men nodded, giving her a fake salute before turning back to the main meeting to find the others still fawning about science. Sam coughed to alert them of their presence and smiled with as much sincerity as he could muster.

‘We’re heading out, science nerds. Update us on the cage tonight.’

With that, he logged them out of the meeting and the blue holograms of their friends disintegrated into pixels, disappearing as Bucky pushed his chair out from the table and ran a hand through his hair. He looked defeated, the topic of capturing someone dangerous reminding him of the days when people could manipulate his strength with a few choice words.

He felt sorry for the girl. Whatever her powers were, they weren’t natural. She was another project of bad people wanting to play with the laws of nature for their own advantage, and the likelihood was that she didn’t have a choice in what happened to her. He knew what that was like, and that’s why he wanted to help her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there ^^
> 
> I've seen that a few people have given this fic kudos since it published yesterday which I'm so buzzing about!
> 
> But if you really like the story, could you leave a nice comment too expressing what you like about it? I'm about to start 2nd year of my uni course on the 8th of September so my motivation for writing is about to take a dive off a very high cliff, and I need the encouragement to keep writing!
> 
> Even the smallest comment would really help me, and I'll answer any questions you have about the fic or anything else :3
> 
> Thank you for reading this story ^^

The jet felt like a wagon trundling along on cobblestones once they crossed the oceanic border into Scotland’s airspace, the rain hailing down on the roof of the plane burrowing tiny holes into Bucky’s skull and making him pray that the weather would brighten up in the short time that they planned to be in Portree.

It was still bright outside at that time of night in September, the sky sloping over the horizon with a faded blue colour and a multitude of grey and white clouds hanging over the mountain tops. Europe was really tall, Bucky had noticed with all his “old man brain cells” as Sam liked to call them, but not in the same way that New York was tall.

Everything was green and rocky, with the white pinpoints of sheep dotted around on the landscape and dark lines of rivers cutting through the fields. There were no skyscrapers or glass buildings, it was all just natural. He liked it, and it definitely made a change to the underground walls of the Earth Defense facility, even if Stark had painted everything bright colours to distract from the fact that it was a rat race underneath tons and tons of hard-packed soil.

‘Look alive, my enhanced friends, we’re zeroing in on the landing point.’

Bucky lifted his head away from the distraction of the picturesque outside to focus on the clearing that they were slowly landing inside. The turbulence had disappeared sometime during his daydreaming, leaving only the breezy air of a cold country and the useless sun above their heads.

The assassin stood up from his laid down position on the seats, heaving out a sigh and tucking one of the five tranquillizer guns into his belt. The plan was for him to draw her out if she wasn’t already asleep and if she got violent, he would be the distraction while Sam and Wanda took the other four guns for a better chance at getting her sedated.

It was a decent plan - but Bucky didn’t very much like being the only one in the firing range.

They would try the cottage first, that only made sense, in hope that the target would be alone for them to take care of before Brodie noticed they were even there. As they approached the brick dwelling, Bucky raised his knives, prepared for an attack at any moment. A knife wouldn’t do as much damage as a bullet, and they wanted to keep Argyle alive.

‘I’m only reading two heat signatures inside the building. One human, one feline.’ Wanda told him and Sam as they descended on the small house, looking at the scanning details on her arm.

Sam turned to look at her.

‘Big feline?’

‘No, coward, common house cat-sized.’ She replied with a roll of her eyes before Bucky spoke up, spinning one of the knives in his hand with ease.

‘So if there’s only one human signature, then maybe Brodie isn’t here?’ He suggested, searching the perimeter surrounding them with wary eyes.

Wanda shook her head, red streaks of light weaving through the air from her hands as she stayed ready to fight.

‘We can’t assume that it’s just her. Sam, take the farmhouse. Bucky, start at that end of the cottage, I’ll go down here. Stay alert and if you engage the target, don’t touch her skin.’ She reminded both of the men who nodded, sneaking off into their positions to search for Daylighter.

Bucky approached the rear end of the cottage only to find an additional dome at the other side, connected by a glass hallway that was open for the public eye to see. After a cursory inspection, he realised there was no way in through the glass without making a loud noise and alerting inhabitants to his presence, so he crept over to the window on the wall of the dome instead, taking a moment to check in with his teammates.

‘Do you have eyes on the target?’ He questioned with a press to the mic looped around his ear, connecting to the other two heroes on the estate.

‘Negative.’ Sam was first to reply and Bucky could hear his footsteps in the background, crunching on leaves and whatever else covered the barn he was investigating.

‘Nothing here either.’ Wanda chimed in, causing him to look to the right just in case there was any sign of the witch there.

All he saw was the swaying trees and a sky that was beginning to darken. With a sigh, Barnes moved closer to the stone dome, carefully peering into the window from the side in case someone was in there already.

As he gazed in, he saw that the inside of the stone dwelling was painted red, bookshelves reaching the ceiling stacked with a large selection of colourful spines all nestled into mahogany shelves and pressed against each other like fish in a barrel.

‘That’s a lot of books…’ He whispered to himself, scanning the rest of the room and gulping when his eyes landed on Daylighter.

She was laid out on the couch that stretched the small library, ankles crossed with her hands holding the book that her eyes were flickering across as she read it. The cover shone under the light of a lamp beside her head, the spine of which curled over the house cat that Wanda had warned them about.

Bucky barely had time to admire his target’s peaceful expression before the cat was staring at him from its perch on the back of the couch, eyes burrowing into his when he met its gaze and gulped. If the cat kept staring at him, Argyle would notice and have it out for his blood, then the whole team would be screwed.

He kept his eyes locked on the feline’s for a moment until he noticed the young woman’s face tilt upwards to look at her cat who was quite clearly on edge from seeing Bucky’s face. Her eyes turned to the White Wolf then, coloured the same bright red that he’d seen in the video of her most recent crime, and the assassin quickly plastered himself against the outside wall of the dome.

Keeping every part of his body out of view of the window frame, he breathed as slow as possible to avoid her hearing him, his chest heaving up and down even as he kept his lips sealed to stop any loud breaths from escaping. He glanced down at the control pad on his arm with desperation leaking from his pores. He needed to get help.

Suddenly the idea of being the front line of this mission wasn’t so appealing, and he really didn’t want to take Daylighter on alone, so he typed in a message to send to the others in the perimeter.

WWolf: CONVERGE ON THE DOME AT THE BACK OF THE COTTAGE, SHE KNOWS WE’RE HERE!

He stayed stuck like a fly in a web against the wall while waiting for a reply, half of his mind wondering why he hadn’t been attacked yet. He had a bad feeling that the mission was going to go south fast. Shutting his eyes, he waited for the inevitable attack from their probable hostile target, only focusing his gaze on the outside again when his wrist buzzed with a message.

Scarlet: We’ll be there in a few seconds.

Bucky glanced down, reading the message from Wanda and breathing a sigh of relief, only able to relax for a second before the window beside his arm was shattering and a slim hand wrapped around his throat, squeezing tight enough to crack non-enhanced bones.

He froze at the touch, reaching a hand up to fight the target’s grip before he was thrown across the grass, landing with a thud and a groan as his wrist buzzed again. His head felt like it had just heard a grenade and lost balance while he tried to look down at the message, the looming shadow of Daylighter approaching from the library.

Baddest Bird In The Whole Damn Town: Draw her out! We need to engage her so she doesn’t notice the darts being fired!

We? What did Sam think ‘we’ meant? He wasn’t engaging the psycho with the ability to melt his face off of his fucking skull!

‘Oh fuck-’

Bucky moved out of the way just in time before a scalding hot fist hit the earth where his head had been, burning the grass underneath it. His blue eyes widened at the sight and he only looked up at her for a moment before he was rolling out of the way again, getting up on his feet to deflect her hits instead.

The red on her arms and neck flared when she turned her gaze to where he was standing, teeth bared and eyes fiery before she lunged at him, punching every direction she could access. Hits came down on Bucky’s ribs and arms while he attempted to protect his face, only then realising that one of her hands had moved away to slide a knife from her belt.

He caught the blade between both hands as it plunged in the direction of his left eye, glaring at the girl while she stared back at him, both their chests heaving as they stood still.

‘I’m not here to hurt you, Meghan.’

‘You’ll kill me if I don’t kill you first.’ She snarled back, voice a little deeper than Bucky had imagined it being.

Her eyes were alert, like a rabbit waiting in the shadows to avoid being devoured by a fox, and her lips were still pulled into a snarl to bare her teeth at who she perceived as a threat. Bucky stared back at her, concerned about the strain her fiery powers put on her body.

A quick glance at the scarring on her body told him. The fire seemed to be contained within her scars, no external burning showing up in his line of sight. It was incredible, the amount of control she had over the heat inside her body. Bucky wondered if she could feel it running through her, if the temperature was causing her pain, but he didn’t have much time to think about it before she was taking advantage of his distraction and swiping at his ankles.

The assassin thumped down onto the ground with pain radiating in his lower back, having been thrown one too many times after so few missions in the past year. He wheezed at the impact, clenching his teeth with a groan.

‘Would one of you two please hurry up?! I’m not getting beat to a pulp just so you can take your sweet time helping me!’ He yelled out into the darkness, finally hearing the whirring of Sam’s wings as he ducked down closer to the two of them from the darkness, staying quiet so Daylighter couldn’t avoid his gun.

Her eyes were still thankfully focused on Bucky, but as a downside for him, her hands were now wrapped around his throat, squeezing the breath out of him. Grasping at the grip around his neck, he tried to pull her off but it wasn’t working, his face beginning to turn red from the lack of air and the abnormal strength of their target’s hands on him.

‘Sam, for the love of God, shoot her!’ He choked out between groans, still trying to get the girl away from his oesophagus while Wanda appeared in view and red magic surrounded Daylighter’s hands, trying to pry them off too.

When both their efforts didn’t work against Argyle’s strength, Sam finally shot the darts, aiming each one at her legs to get the best skin to pierce with needles. The drug didn’t slow her down at first, taking a few more seconds before she started to look drowsy, allowing Bucky to get out of her grip and up onto his feet.

He watched as she started to slump with tiredness, letting out a breath of relief at the fact that she was now disarmed. Lifting his head when he heard Sam land on the ground, he glared in his direction, running a mucky hand through his hair.

‘Hey asshole, maybe move a bit faster next time I tell you I’m fighting one on one with a furnace!’

‘I thought you had it under control!’ His best friend yelled back, wings folding down into the containment unit on his back as he walked over to him.

Bucky’s eyes widened at his reply and he growled, ready to fight.

‘She could have burned my goddamn face off!’

‘Well, that would have been your fault, not mine!’

‘If you boys could stop arguing for five minutes, we need to get her back to the compound before the sedative wears off.’ Wanda jumped into the conversation by walking up to them, tying her hair back into a ponytail to focus her concentration more before aiming her hands at Daylighter’s body, ready to manoeuvre her into the Quinjet with her powers.

Bucky huffed at her response, crossing his arms like a child and glaring at Sam still.

‘He started- ah, fuck!’ He screeched suddenly when a blinding pain erupted in his calf, looking down to see Meghan tearing a dagger through the side of his leg and creating a bleeding gash before finally collapsing into sleep, the full effects of the sedative knocking her out.

Bucky stared down at his bleeding calf in shock for a moment before Wanda spoke again, surrounding their target’s body with a faint red aura and starting to carry her back to the jet.

‘For once, act like adults, and get your asses back in the jet. Wasting time won’t help us if we run into a storm in the middle of the ocean. Eight hours, that’s the limit Peter gave us, so hurry up.’ She told them like a mother scolding her children, despite the glaring age difference between her and them.

The White Wolf wanted to argue again but the pain in his leg was getting worse and he could feel the blood leaving him at a somewhat alarming rate, so he nodded, letting out a huff and shoving his arm against Sam’s when he did the same as they followed the young Scarlet Witch back to the jet.


	4. Chapter 4

Meghan’s head felt like a hunk of concrete when she began to wake up from the sedative hours later. She had stirred mostly because of the drug, but the sound of voices close to her did a good job of waking her too, the lack of familiarity in them causing her to worry about where she was. As she came around and managed to lift her heavy eyelids despite the fatigue plaguing her body, she listened with interest to the surrounding voices to see if they had any useful information for getting out of wherever she was.

The most she could figure out so far was that she definitely wasn’t in her cottage anymore. She’d be much more comfortable if she was.

Focusing all the concentration she could muster, Meghan tried to listen to what the voices were actually saying. Three of them, all deep, but one of them was definitely female. They all sounded stressed, like something had gone wrong and they were trying to fix it. The distinct tangy taste of blood permeated the air around her. It was familiar, like she’d tasted it before.

‘We can’t keep her in that cage forever- would you stay still?’ One of them said in a scolding tone, eliciting a growl from the other male in the room.

‘She tore into my leg with a serrated knife, it hurts!’

‘Stop being such a pussy!’

The woman let out a sigh while she listened to the two men bicker, and Meghan tuned into her voice more as she spoke.

‘Anyway, you’re right, Sam. We can’t keep her in there forever. Shuri says she can take her for treatment like she did with you, Barnes, but we need to collect whatever information we can first in case any of her memory is wiped. We need to find out if Brodie is still alive and if so, where he’s hiding.’ She told them both, and the girl in the cage lifted her head at the sound of her master’s name.

The three of them hadn’t noticed that she was awake yet, giving her time to evaluate their appearances. First deep voice, dark skin, close-cut hair, really tall from what she could tell with him kneeling down. Strong too, she was smart enough to know he’d be a threat if she engaged him while escaping.

The woman looked slightly more intimidating than him, which must have taken effort. She was shorter, much closer to Meghan’s height than the other guy, with red hair that faded into blonde at the ends. Pale like her and every bit of a danger that the other guy was.

Number three was the person who made her tense like a wild animal, her wrists pulling away from the steel chair she was sitting in and forcing her to acknowledge the restraints around them, the fibres tough against her skin. She hadn’t felt pain in years but she knew damage when she saw it and the pressure of the binds reminded her of all those days Clark would tie her up and fry her brain like bacon.

The Winter Soldier was sitting there with a glower on his face, directed at the man kneeling beside his leg. His long brown hair was wet like it had just been washed, a few strands sticking to the scruff on his face, and his blue eyes were focused on glaring at the man who Meghan presumed was his friend.

Just as she was watching his face for any signs of hostility, wrists still tense and pulling at the restraints around them, the glint of his metal arm came into view, causing her fists to clench and forcing a low snarl from her throat. The instincts that Clark had manipulated for so many years wanted to rip the man apart, sharp canines baring in a hiss as she reacted to the sight of him.

‘You're still alive.’ Meghan hissed, eyes turning a glaring red with rage while the scars on her arms and neck burst into crimson heat, pulsing like lava through a volcano crater.

The sound of her voice clearly spooked the three of them outwith the cage she was being held in, all of the strangers going on alert like they thought she would be able to get out of the cage. Their apprehension certainly helped her plan to escape, giving her hope that she would have enough strength to break the glass.

She tilted her head at the three heroes watching her, peering at Bucky with the rage burning inside her veins. They all seemed to be looking at her scars with the same fear that all her victims did, which made a smirk lift up the corners of her mouth even with the blinding painful rage that was running through her body as the Winter Soldier spoke up.

Bucky eyed the young girl with the same suspicion that she seemed to be directing at him, still on alert just in case she got out of the restraints keeping her hands at bay.

At first, he thought she would stay calm but then the second she laid her eyes on him, she had hissed like a predator. Her aggressive behaviour made him anxious about whether Shuri’s rehabilitation program would work the same for her, but he took comfort in what Natasha said when she noticed him flinch at the sound of Meghan’s anger.

‘It’s going to be fine, Buck. You were just like this a few years ago, and she’s the result of much less brainwashing. We will get the original Meghan back, whoever is hiding underneath all that anger.’ She gave him a reassuring smile, patting his shoulder while Sam worked on sewing up his leg.

The jab of the needle caught him off guard once again when he wasn’t warned about it and his hackles raised like the cat roaming around beside them.

‘Hey, asshole, warn me next time you’re going to prick me so hard. I can feel pain, ya know.’ He growled, narrowing his eyes at his best friend while he glared back just as unhappily.

‘Oh, behave, you two.’ Natasha rolled her eyes, approaching the glass window of the cage when Meghan started to tug at her restraints more violently.

‘Hey, hey! Calm down before you hurt yourself any further.’ She insisted, knocking on the glass to get her attention and crossing her arms over her chest.

The scars stretching her arms and reaching all the way to her jawline were now an almost black-red colour, her teeth bared in a snarl while she locked her eyes on Natasha. It didn’t make her as nervous as it should after so many decades of dealing with dangerous people, but she could feel the heat that she was producing through the glass. Worrying.

‘Am I the only one feeling warmer?’ Sam’s voice cut into her concerned thoughts, forcing her to break eye contact with Meghan and look down at the men.

‘It’s her power. Move closer to the glass, Bucky.’

‘What?’

‘I think it’s your presence that’s making it worse. Move closer like a good boy before I have to threaten your hair again.’ She smirked when Bucky glared at her, watching him stand up once Sam wrapped up his leg and limp towards the glass.

‘Bitch.’ The little grumble that escaped him made her snort, her eyes going straight back to their captive when another thread in her bindings tore with a loud snap.

Stepping back from the glass, she let the White Wolf take over, leaning her arms on the crown of Sam’s head who let her be, watching the scene unfold between the two Winter Soldiers.

‘It's your fault I'm a weapon. He wanted me to surpass you, you're the reason I'm like this!’ Meghan’s anger escalated as Bucky got closer, halting his advance and causing a frown to take over his face.

He put his hand up against the glass, wincing at the way the surface rubbed against the small incision on his palm. Grabbing Daylighter’s dagger between both hands had been a bad move, even if it saved him from losing another body part.

‘It’s okay, Meghan. You're safe now. You don't have to worry about being used as a weapon anymore.’ He tried to reassure her, reasoning with himself that maybe he could get through to the person underneath if he could convince her that she was safe.

‘It’s your fault.’

Bucky sighed at her reply, lowering his head and taking a deep breath. She was a carbon copy of himself throughout the decades that he’d been under the control of HYDRA, anger and rage swirling through her head. It all brought back memories of his lack of control, forcing him to confront the fact that she was exactly like him.

The knowledge that he was the reason someone hurt the girl was hard to hear. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, he slowly breathed in and out to keep himself calm. Despite all his healing, he still had a temper, and Meghan accusing him of being the reason she was in so much pain brought out a little extra anger than he was expecting. He didn’t ask for this, he didn’t ask to be the catalyst for more insanity, he didn’t ask for people to be tortured in his name.

‘I didn't ask to be an experiment either. I never wanted anyone to get hurt, and I’m sorry that Brodie put you through all this, but we want to help you. You’re safe with us.’ He insisted again when he clocked her left wrist close to breaking out of the binding around it.

The skin underneath the restraints was raw and bleeding from rubbing against the vibranium fabric, looking sore and tender to the touch, but it didn’t seem to be bothering the girl at all. She simply stared back at Bucky with a snarl.

‘I was safer where you found me!’ She snapped back with enough force in her voice to make the glass underneath the soldier’s hand tremble.

Her power was immense, far stronger than they had anticipated, and the shaking glass made Bucky move back a step, wary of her potential to shatter the window.

Behind him, Natasha sighed, and he felt her step towards the cage to stand beside him, eyes focused on Daylighter.

‘You weren't safe there. Believe me. This is the safest you'll ever be.’ She told her in as soft a tone as she could muster.

They both noticed her struggling lessen with every gentle word they used, both wrists relaxing until her small hands were resting without tension on the armrests they were tied to. Bucky watched as the pulsating red of her scars lightened to the colour of a rose, the anger having dissipated to the point where she was able to speak calmly. It was clear that their calm demeanours were helping her control as well.

Barnes felt an elbow jab to his side and turned to see both Sam and Natasha urging him to keep talking, hoping his experience with what she was going through would help him talk to her on a more personal level. As he stepped closer to the glass again, it was still trembling under his touch, a sign that she wasn’t completely relaxed yet. He didn’t blame her, he knew being tied up like that wasn’t fun, and he couldn’t lie to himself that it was for her safety as much as theirs. That just wasn’t true.

He met her gaze again, unafraid of the consequences of her power this time. He didn’t want her to think he was her enemy, so he kept his face neutral with just the hint of a smile as he spoke.

‘I don’t know who exists under all that rage that he’s forced on you, but I know you’re not a monster. You didn’t kill those people, it wasn’t you. Your name is Meghan Heather Argyle, you’re twenty-four years old, you were born in Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye, and you didn’t kill those people.’ He told her, forcing his hand to lie flat on the glass when it vibrated more underneath his palm.

He stood witness as the red of her eyes faded into their natural colour for the first time since they’d met, smiling a little at the sight of the hazel irises that stared back at him. Pressing a bit closer to the cage, he spoke again.

‘Listen, Meghan. We both didn't ask for this. We’ve both been hurt far more than anybody could ever hope to understand. We want to help you and stop you from taking any more lives because you don’t deserve to be a murderer. Will you let me help you?’

They stared at each other for a moment, Meghan’s chest heaving as she came down from her anger to finally speak, her hands trembling on the armrests.

‘Okay.’


	5. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, I'm back :3
> 
> Please comment if you like, I need reassurance that people still want me to write things ><

The calm demeanour that Meghan had finally showed gave Bucky hope that day with them separated by glass, but he knew he should have expected it wouldn’t last long.

It was as if she had been whispered to without their knowledge, her eyes going red again after five minutes of peace and causing the whole room to go on red alert as the glass cage shattered.

They didn’t know how she had done it. One second she had been breathing slow and staring at the man with a relaxed expression and the next her eyes were red, her scars pulsed like fire and the glass rumbled with a low vibration before shattering between them.

Her cat, whom they had nicknamed Terror without a collar to tag him with, had jumped a foot in the air and hid behind Natasha’s legs at the sound of the wall breaking into sharp shards. He peeked out from behind the woman while Bucky covered his eyes, pulling out both of his daggers for the event that Meghan attacked all of them.

‘Meghan, calm down!’ He yelled into the empty space between them, but she had already broken out of the restraints and was running at the soldier.

He ducked when she lunged at him, sending the woman over his head. She recovered quickly though, landing on her feet in a crouch and skidding around to face him. Bucky tried to react before she could deck him, but he wasn’t fast enough, quickly finding himself on his back with Meghan’s hands around his throat again like they had been back in Scotland.

It confused him that his neck didn’t burn when she touched it. If she hated him so much and wanted to kill him so badly, why not just burn through his oesophagus and crush him while she melted his skin?

The pain of her hands squeezing around his neck was enough to bring him back to reality though, the sight of the woman’s red eyes glaring down at him making his bones tremble inside his body. She looked so angry…

‘You did this to me-’ Her words were cut off when Nat stabbed a needle into her neck, injecting another sedative into her bloodstream.

The young girl slumped unconscious as it hit her, Bucky quickly catching her and being careful not to touch her burning scars as they cooled down. Using his discarded jacket from the mission that still lay on the back of Sam’s chair, he folded it into a pillow and rested her head down on it.

‘Thank god for animal tranquilisers.’

‘That was a fucking animal tranq?! We don’t know how that could affect a human!’ The White Wolf argued, narrowing his gaze when his friend shrugged.

‘We used one on you a few years ago and you’re fine, relax.’ Sam groaned in discomfort as he stood up among the glass shards now covering the floor around them.

Terror had leapt up onto the empty chair, sitting down and staring at his new human companions, in particular at Bucky, as if he was fascinated by their behaviour. That’s probably true, Bucky thought to himself, before looking to Sam and Natasha with a defeated expression.

‘We need a new cell for her before she wakes up and tries to kill me again.’

∞

The same animal tranquiliser had to be administered three times before Peter and Wanda had the new cage set up and safe. Bucky hated the fact that everyone called it a cell, as if she was a prisoner when really, she was just a terrified victim of a sociopath’s ambition.

‘I don’t want you in there with her. You set off those fire powers of hers.’ Nat pointed out where they sat around the kitchen table in their quarters.

Bucky sucked the life out of his chocolate milkshake and sighed, tapping his vibranium fingers against the rim of the glass which caused a ringing sound to resonate through the kitchen.

‘I’m the only one who’s managed to get through to her so far. I’ll risk getting burned if it helps her.’

‘Well right now it isn’t going to help her to make her angry.’ The woman responded, sipping from her own peanut butter shake, and eyeing the cat prowling around beside Morgan and Tony on the couch.

‘I don’t trust that thing.’

‘It’s just a cat, Sam.’ Wanda laughed as she appeared in the kitchen without Peter by her side, going to the sink to wash off what looked like blood that covered her hands.

All eyes landed on her when she began to whistle as if nothing was wrong and she wasn’t washing red off her hands. After she’d dried the soap and water from them, she turned and shrugged in response to the eyes on her.

Bucky looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

‘You want to share with us where the blood appeared from, little witch?’ Sam said what everyone was thinking while Meghan’s cat prowled on the back of the couch, his tail flicking against the man’s head.

Wanda shook her head at the question, leaning against the counter beside where Bucky was sitting once she’d filled her red water bottle via the tap.

‘It’s not blood, it’s paint. We thought we’d add some colour to Meghan’s cell.’

‘Don’t you think the colour of blood is a bit triggering for the girl forced to kill people? Maybe try something a bit brighter.’ Sam suggested, moving backwards when Terror pushed his small face closer to his.

The younger Avenger sighed, sipping from her water bottle before heading for the door again. She smacked Sam’s head on the way past for good measure.

‘We’ll change the colour later if she doesn’t like it, Pigeon Brains. Don’t be coming to Meghan’s cell for the next few hours, White Wolf, me and Peter are going to talk to her while she’s calm and your presence is not conducive to that.’ She pointed out, running a hand through her long hair as she disappeared around the corner.

Bucky groaned when he was once again told to stay away, turning to look at Tony hopefully.

‘Stark, do we at least have surveillance in her new location? I want to make sure she doesn’t kill those two.’ He still had a frown permanently set into his features – it had been there since he found out about the new Winter Soldier, stress and worry making his face more anxious than his mind.

Tony groaned, sitting up properly from where he was lounging on the couch with Morgan and picking up one of the tablets strewn across the table, one of at least ten lying around that part of the main quarters.

‘Do you children ever take care of the stuff I buy you?’ He expressed sourly, tapping on the screen and grimacing at the crumbs that covered part of it.

‘It’s part of our charm, dad.’ Natasha joked while she finished off her milkshake and smirked at him, watching him bring up the video footage of Meghan’s cell.

‘Yeah, it’s why you love us, old man.’ Sam joined in on the ridicule, sitting up properly when Morgan decided to switch laps from her dad’s to her uncle’s.

He hugged his arms tight around the kid while Tony showed everybody what was happening in the new Winter Soldier’s cell. Bucky watched over his shoulder with curiosity, worried about their new addition to the compound.

Meghan stirred a little while after Wanda came back into the room, her head pounding from the amount of chemically induced sleep she had endured that day. The room she was in now was darker, like the lights had been turned down or maybe this room just didn’t have light at all.

She considered for a brief moment that they might have caged her in a dark cell with no windows to scare her into cooperating, but it’s not like she had a choice in whether she did that either.

Lifting her head, she observed how the lights brightened with her movement, motion sensors telling them when to light up the room. The slower lighting of the room eased her headache somewhat, and she was able to focus better on the two people on the other side of the new glass wall.

A young man who looked no older than her with brown curls was standing beside a woman of the same age with dark red hair, both of them discussing something over a tablet. Meghan scraped the legs of her chair against the floor to get their attention, confused as to why two teenagers were watching her instead of the Winter Soldier and his adult friends from earlier.

The boy was the first one to look up from the tablet, his smile far too bright and cheery for Meghan’s liking. How could he smile at her like that when she was tied up like an animal in a cage?

‘Hi! Oh, I’m so glad you’re awake! I’m Peter, Bucky says your name is Meghan. How are you feeling?’

His face was much too happy and grinning. She didn’t like that cheery attitude while the light was splitting her head apart – an opportunity to mess with him then. Revenge for the bright lights above her head.

‘Tha mi ceart gu leòr, agus beagan sgìth. Ciamar a tha thu, a Phàdraig?’ She responded, a smirk quirking at the edge of her lips at the sight of utter confusion on the man’s face.

He stared in confusion for a moment before speaking up, presumably to the AI system that controlled the facility she was being kept in.

‘FRIDAY, what language is that?’

‘I believe it’s Scottish Gaelic, Peter.’

‘Gaelic, huh? Can you tell me what she just said?’

‘Of course, Peter. She told you she is fine but a little tired, and she asked how you are.’ The AI responded quickly once it had translated Meghan’s words, causing the young man to nod and smile at the woman in the cage, his happiness more incredibly annoying than it was infectious.

‘Well, I’m glad you’re okay, I’m sure you’ll be able to get more sleep later. I’m really good though, thanks for asking. I guess that’s obvious to you considering you’re in there and I’m… smiling… anyway!’ He distracted himself by looking down at the tablet in his hands and leaving the young woman beside him to talk to her instead.

‘Is that the language most people speak where you live?’ The witch asked, curiosity getting the better of her while Peter tapped at the tech in his hands, looking up at the surveillance camera in the corner of the room and smiling at it.

Meghan glanced at the camera briefly, knowing she was likely being watched by every Avenger in the group but trying to ignore the anxious feeling that gave her, turning back to Wanda.

‘Yeah, Gaelic is the main language we speak. I learned English to communicate with tourists from the mainland and your country.’ She explained, returning the faint smile that Wanda offered her.

She hadn’t even thought about the binds on her wrists yet. Humming softly to herself and looking around at the cage she was in, she turned her gaze on Peter again, wanting to make the overly perky man uneasy again. It was too easy and too fun – it had been a while since she had had fun with anyone.

‘Càit a bheil an cat agam?’ She asked, baring her teeth to scare him a little more and letting out a quiet laugh when he gulped.

‘FRIDAY, translate?’

‘Miss Argyle is asking where her cat is, Peter.’ The AI replied matter-of-factly, making Wanda laugh too at Peter’s then relieved expression.

‘I like her.’

‘I don’t.’ Peter huffed at the witch, crossing his arms over his chest as Tony and Nat came into the room behind him.


	6. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter :3 Little bit of interaction between the two mains in this story, there'll be a timeskip for the next chapter so that it starts from Meghan returning from Wakanda :)
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please comment if you like it xx

Bucky sat with a frown on his face while Nat and Tony discussed the logistics of moving Meghan to Wakanda. They’d already had a private conversation with the woman about it that he wasn’t permitted to be there for, everyone too worried about her breaking another cage if she saw him. He didn’t particularly like not being included in this particular situation – he knew what she was going through more than anyone so why couldn’t they just let him help?

‘I can have a containment facility ready in an hour. How is the patient feeling?’ Shuri asked from her end of the hologram call, tapping away at a phone in her hands while Tony replied.

‘She’s calm, no sign of a meltdown but that’s what we said yesterday so I’m not counting on the visual signs.’ He explained, glancing over at Bucky briefly when he muttered to himself.

‘She’s not “the patient”, she’s Meghan.’ He grumbled, running a hand through his hair and eyeing Tony and Shuri when they nodded, both giving him a sympathetic smile before going back to the discussion.

‘If she’s calm, we can transfer her awake, but if you want to be extra safe, we should sedate her beforehand. How many tranquilisers do you have left?’

‘Five, but we won’t need all of them. I’ll send them through the portal with Strange.’ Tony told her, tapping on his screen to bring up the security footage of Meghan’s cell.

Bucky watched as the young woman leaned her head back over the chair, stretching her scarred neck and humming a tune to herself. He listened to the tune for a moment before a smile twitched at the edge of his mouth and he leaned back in his seat. He lifted his legs up to rest on the table in front of him and crossed his arms over his chest.

‘She’s humming the national anthem.’

Tony turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

‘That doesn’t sound like the national anthem.’

‘Not the United States anthem, the Scottish one. Can’t remember the name but I know that tune.’ He sighed softly, shutting his eyes, and listening to her melodic but roughened tone hum the tune.

Shuri and Tony looked at him strangely, wondering why he was so relaxed by the sound before leaving him be and going back to their talk.

‘So, an hour from now, Strange is coming with a few other sorcerers. The portal won’t take long with him in charge.’

The White Wolf drifted away from their conversation after a moment with his eyes shut, tapping his fingers on his thigh to the tune Meghan was humming. He did that for a good few minutes, the anthem seemingly on repeat like a broken record in the girl’s mind, before the sound went silent.

He looked up, opening his eyes to see Tony walking away from the table, the hologram of Shuri already gone.

Bucky frowned, stretching his arm, and calling out to Tony while the man headed for the couch to lie down.

‘Hey, Stark!’

‘Yeah, Sourpuss?’ He got an immediate response as Meghan’s cat leapt from the leather chair to the plush couch, padding onto the man’s chest.

‘Can I go and talk to her?’

‘Didn’t think you were capable of asking for permission for anything so kudos, your manners are improving.’

Bucky rolled his eyes, standing up and wandering over to him. He leaned his hands on the back of the couch, giving him a reluctant polite smile. Two years since coming back in the war had not helped their friendship much, not that there was much of a friendship to help, but at least they could stand being in the same room without yelling at each other now.

‘Wow, I didn’t know you were capable of smiling.’

Although sometimes Stark made it difficult not to rip his heart out.

‘Can I go and see her or not, Stark?’ He repeated his question without rising to the teasing bait, groaning when Tony shook his head to indicate no.

‘You can’t go in there an hour before her transfer. You know what happens when she sees your face, Barnes.’

Of course, he knew what happened, he’d been choked enough times as a result of going near Meghan but…

‘Three months is a long time. She should talk to someone familiar before she’s cut off from all of us. I know what it’s like, I can reassure her about what she’s going to experience.’ Bucky insisted, scratching Terror’s ear when the cat rubbed up against his metal hand.

Tony went quiet, appearing to be considering it before he finally spoke.

‘Okay, you can go in. But I’m keeping surveillance on the entire time and I swear if you make her set off the red alert again, I’m going to let her kill you this time.’ The man warned, standing up and stretching.

‘Bring her something, might make her hate you a bit less.’ He suggested before yawning and rubbing his eyes, heaving out a sigh.

‘I’m going to take a nap before the real show starts. Be careful.’ Tony reiterated, walking out of the room to find a spare bedroom to nap in.

Bucky stood there for a moment, staring at the space where the man used to be before going off in search of something to bring to the new addition.

Rummaging in the kitchen for something that he could safely give to the woman while she was still secured in her binds, he came upon a plastic bottle of water. Cracking it open and then replacing the lid, he headed to the other side of the compound with the intention of sneaking past the guards outside her room. They likely wouldn’t be too pleased about him visiting the insane lady with the red eyes.

The corridors were eerily quiet on his way to her cell, the only sound the echo of his boots on the ground while he walked. The hallway outside her room was dimly lit, the wet, newly painted red door glaringly obvious in between the other dull and grey ones. It was nice of the younger Avengers to paint Meghan’s room like that, though he had to wonder if the fresh paint fumes were worse to handle than the depressingly grey metal walls that were there before.

He approached her room slowly, bottle of water in hand. The guards weren’t looking in his direction so Bucky thought he might get lucky. Employing his old skills from being the ghostly Winter Soldier, he lowered his head and shuffled closer to the door until he was able to slip inside the room unnoticed.

Inside, it was dark. Not completely pitch black but the only lights were the dull white ones inside Meghan’s cell. When he turned around to look at her, once the door was securely shut and he was sure he hadn’t been caught entering or followed, he was surprised at the sound of Meghan’s voice. He shouldn’t have been so shocked though – she was a Winter Soldier, she heard everything and could differentiate who she was talking to based on the pace and vibration of their footsteps. He’d been able to do the same thing once upon a time.

‘Barnes.’ Her lighter accent sounded forced, like she was unhappy about having to change it so Bucky could understand her.

He could sympathise with that. Not many people understood his own voice when he went full Brooklyn other than Steve.

‘Argyle.’ He responded in kind, giving her a smile even though she couldn’t see it.

Her head was still hanging over the back of the chair, the low hum of the Scottish national anthem somehow still reverberating throughout the room even if she wasn’t humming it anymore. That was an interesting power to witness, like she had control over her own echo.

‘Why are you here?’

‘FRIDAY can translate Gaelic; you don’t have to speak English if you don’t want to.’ He tried to reach a middle ground with her by making her more comfortable, tucking his hands into his pockets while waiting for her response.

Meghan lifted her head immediately at his words and he glimpsed sparks of red in her hazel eyes.

‘First, the “a” sound in Gaelic is pronounced like the “a” in armadillo, not the “a” in alien. Second, are you insulting my English?’

Bucky shook his head, walking to the other side of the room and offering her another awkward smile.

‘Not insulting, no, just trying to make you more comfortable. You appear to prefer speaking in your native language.’

‘Doesn’t everybody?’ Daylighter scoffed, leaning her head back over the chair and staring up at the ceiling again, focusing on the diamond pattern of the plastic.

‘Staring at the ceiling so my face doesn’t set off your instincts, that’s a good coping strategy.’ The White Wolf complimented, listening to the sarcastic laugh that he got in response.

‘Tha fios agam gu bheil thu a ’feuchainn ri ceangal a dhèanamh rium tron trauma co-roinnte againn. A bheil thu a ’smaoineachadh gu bheil cùram agam air na chaidh thu troimhe? Chan e do charaid a th ’annam, Barnes.’

‘FRIDAY?’ Bucky looked up at the ceiling when Meghan spoke in Gaelic, glancing at the young woman briefly with a smile.

‘I know you're trying to connect with me through our shared trauma. You think I care what you went through? I'm not your friend, Barnes.’

The former soldier sighed at her response, rubbing his forehead and shaking his head. He could understand why she didn’t like talking about previous trauma, he didn’t like it much either, so he tried a different angle, stepping up to the glass just so she felt closer to him even if she couldn’t look him in the eye.

‘Fair enough, I don’t like talking about it a whole lot either. At least you didn’t lose an arm during it though.’

Bad choice of comparison on his part, he could hear it in his voice once the words left his lips.

‘Sorry.’

‘Fhuair thu gàirdean ùr, ag obair gu tur, dh ’fhalbh na duilgheadasan corporra agad. Tha na sgaraidhean agam seasmhach, bidh iad a ’dèiligeadh ri trom-laighe a bharrachd air d’ aghaidh agus tha mi a ’smaoineachadh gu bheil fios agad mu thràth dè cho cumanta sa tha trom-laighe dha cuideigin mar sinn.’ Meghan snapped back, lifting her head just slightly before remembering why she had it tipped back in the first place.

Bucky watched as she dug her nails into the leather armrests of the chair, nailbeds bleeding from previous altercations with their team since she hadn’t yet been able to wash herself off. He frowned at the action, part of him wishing he could reach out and stop her from wrecking her hands.

‘You got a new, fully functioning arm, your physical problems went away. My scars are constant, they react to nightmares as well as your face and I think you already know how common nightmares are for someone like us.’ FRIDAY translated above him again and the knowledge of what the girl had actually said hurt more than seeing her injure herself.

He sure did know how bad the nightmares got, he had them every night still, even with the treatment by Shuri.

‘I wish I could tell you the nightmares go away but they don’t. Shuri’s detox will help though. It’ll hurt, sure will, but no more than what he did to you in that cottage. You’ll come back as who you were before him, just with more memories.’

‘Chan eil fhios agam cò a bh ’annam ro Clark.’

‘No translation needed, FRIDAY.’ Bucky told the AI, knowing exactly what Meghan had said without needing to speak Gaelic.

He knew what she was thinking.

‘You’ll discover who you are with our help.’

Approaching the door to the cell, he pressed the button to enter and spoke quickly before the young woman could look up directly at him and put the whole underground compound on red alert again.

‘I’ve got some water here. Keep your eyes shut so you can finally drink something, tranquilisers are really dehydrating.’ He explained, watching Meghan nod and lift her head but with her hazel irises out of view.

‘Thank you.’

‘Human experiments gotta stick together.’ Bucky smiled despite knowing she couldn’t see him, helping her drink the water by holding her chin and tipping it back into her mouth.

She drained the whole bottle and then grunted, giving the man a slight smile.

‘I’ll see you in three months if I don’t kill anybody else.’ She joked softly, still keeping her eyes shut when Bucky finally moved away and started for the door.

‘Don’t worry, my ugly face won’t be there to set you on fire.’


	7. 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late because I fell asleep on my keyboard last night but here ya go!
> 
> Comment if you like it :3

Three months of waiting for his attempted murderer to come back from the depths of Wakanda went surprisingly slow for Bucky, made even worse by being dumped on mission after mission with Sam to get on his nerves constantly. He didn’t like not knowing what was happening to the girl. He knew what was happening but at the same time, he didn’t know if she would turn out the same way as he did, or if Shuri would be able to get back who she was. He wasn’t even sure that he was back to who he was before the Winter Soldier, not completely.

Living in the compound kept him busy though. Fifteen advanced beings under the one roof, fifty-foot underground but with holographic walls that reflected the outside, it wasn’t a bad way to live. They were in a nuclear bomb shelter, he knew that. Stark had an underground facility built in the event that World War Three started that Bucky struggled to fathom the size of and no amount of jogging the perimeter of it everyday helped him to figure that out.

He spent most of his time in his room or in the gym, punching his nightmares out like they were people that he could cut open and bleed. He didn’t sleep eight out of ten nights no matter the fact that no one could control his temper with words anymore, but he was doing his best to improve himself and his fitness for the sake of the missions.

Meghan’s absence made things harder, he wasn’t sure why. Before he knew she existed, he was fine with being the only super soldier at the compound who knew what it was like to be tortured and used – he was used to it. When he saw her face though and witnessed how she struggled to keep the rage inside and exploded like a bomb whenever she looked him in the eye, a troubled part of him deep in his heart felt seen, and he wanted to protect her from everyone else that would try and use her no matter the consequences to his own life.

Though, when he got to the final month of her being gone, he forgot about her completely, so focused on everything else that he lost track of when she was coming back to the US.

The newest President, only a year in office, put on a memorial service for those lost in the Battle of Earth from all over the world, praising living and dead Avengers alike for their bravery. Bucky knew not everyone agreed with the creation of Earth Defence and that some stupid citizens still insisted it wasn’t Tony who saved everybody or that the war didn’t happen at all, but he never thought they’d turn a memorial service into a shooting range. He should have known.

Hitting his way through his fifth punching bag in two hours, Bucky hung up a new one and leaned his head against the surface of it, reliving the screams in his head. Everybody running in different directions, the shooters chanting “Kill the freaks!”, and a woman with spiked blonde hair taking aim at his head. He hadn’t expected the President to get in front of him, he was meant to be her security, not her his, but she protected him, and the shooters were apprehended as the older woman bled out in his arms. She was the first President to see him as an ally rather than a threat and watching her die to protect him haunted his mind every day. He didn’t know why, he didn’t know if he was fulfilling what she thought he was capable of, he didn’t know-

The sixth bag thumped to the ground and skidded across the echoing training hall, forcing him to finally acknowledge the ache in his wrists and leave the punching for another day. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the towel sitting on the bench beside him before rubbing his forehead. He tried to think of anything other than the events of three weeks before, only distracted by his thoughts when Sam wandered into the gym and jogged over to him.

‘Hey, I’ve been looking for you. The walking furnace is back from Wakanda, the jet’s arriving in five. You coming to say hello?’

It took Bucky’s mind a moment to catch up before he realised who Sam meant and nodded, wanting to see if Shuri had done the same for the unwilling experiment as she’d done for him.

He followed along beside his friend once he hung a towel around his neck to trap sweat, glad that it wasn’t completely winter outside yet so he could afford to walk in the open aircraft hangar without a jacket or full-length jeans. It wasn’t as bustling as it usually was. With no top priority missions to attend to, the only air-techs in there were the ones who volunteered to work the day that the highly dangerous asset came home from Africa, the few that were more curious than scared, so Bucky and Sam got down to the second-floor landing pretty quickly.

Just in time for the jet to come in through the open roof and land in front of them.

The underground landing space was surrounded by hidden snipers, all waiting with loaded tranquilisers in the dark. While Shuri had reassured the US faction of Earth Defence that Daylighter was no longer a legitimate threat to the United States or the White Wolf, she had told the Avengers team in private that until Meghan saw Bucky’s face in person, there was no telling if the treatment had worked.

So, Bucky stood with his arms crossed over his chest, hands still wrapped from hitting the punching bag and a few cuts on his face from falling out of bed the handful of times he’d tossed around too much during his nightmares. He didn’t know what to expect when the girl stepped out of the jet, but he definitely didn’t expect the beautiful dame that appeared out of the darkness with a stitched cut on her forehead and her eyes looking anywhere but Bucky’s direction.

She cleaned up good, he thought to himself, wondering how much dirt and blood she had actually been covered in to make her look this clean now. Her brown hair had grown out to the same length that Bucky’s had previously been before he cut it, falling just to her shoulders and hanging down in front of her right eye in strands. Most notably, the scars on her neck and arms were no longer a coursing red fire and now lay dormant under her skin in pale pink format, almost blending into her pale skin entirely.

Part of him was glad to see that she hadn’t completely turned into a supermodel, with no make up and baggy clothes still giving her the vibe he got from the girl lying reading in her cottage. The familiarity of her appearance after three months apart put him at ease.

When Sam finally stepped forward to greet the younger hero, Bucky followed him, eyeing her carefully and waiting for the inevitable moment when she locked eyes with him and turned into a murderous, rabid animal ready to rip him to shreds – but she never did.

Meghan’s eyes landed on him and nothing happened, only the sound of the birds above the hangar filling the space between them before Sam clapped a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder, nudging her forward.

‘Come on, I’ll show you around and you can get settled into your new room. You’re between me and Luca. Kid’s one of those people who can fuck with a natural element, she controls lightning.’ He explained, grabbing Bucky’s shoulder with his other hand, and leading them both out of the chilly hangar.

‘She has more in common with Kip. Both of them pack a fiery punch.’ The White Wolf pointed out, opening the door for them to get to the stairwell and letting Meghan through first.

The trio walked up the stairs with Meghan shrugging her backpack further onto her shoulder, eventually stopping when they reached the floor of residences. Sam pushed open the door to let her go through first and Bucky caught himself smiling at the awe on the young woman’s face when she saw the holographic walls and looked back at the two of them.

‘It reflects the outside?’

They nodded in sync and watched her turn back to stare at the walls while they filed into the hallway. Sam pointed further down the hall, waiting for her to pay attention and smiling when she finally did.

‘You’re in the second last door on the right…’ He trailed off when an alert came up on his glasses, looking to that instead.

Bucky read the name of who sent the message backwards and rolled his eyes, already knowing exactly what Sam was going to say and taking Meghan’s other bag from him. The younger man smirked after a moment, giving Bucky what was meant to be a sympathetic smile but came out looking more like a shit-eating grin.

‘I have to go and talk to Natasha, you’ll be okay with your Winter Soldier buddy, won’t you?’

‘Stop calling me that.’ Meghan grumbled at the nickname, glowering at Sam who nodded, smiling a real sympathetic expression this time, and patting her shoulder.

‘Sorry. I need to leave you with Bucky while I sort something. Are you okay sticking with him?’

The young woman glanced over at Bucky for a moment, hazel eyes fixed on his steel ones before she turned back to Sam, nodding. Both of them watched the man jog away until he was out of sight then Bucky started walking down the hallway, unsure of what to say to her. They hadn’t exactly talked about much other than her being a human experiment last time they saw each other.

‘Where’s he going?’ Meghan spoke up as they walked, causing Bucky to let out a snort and shrug.

‘He’s going to have sex.’

The brunette lowered her eyes from him at that answer, scuffing her foot on the ground and shrugging.

‘Never saw the point in sex.’ She muttered, making Bucky smile a little at the fact that she was willing to have a conversation with him.

He nodded in response, tucking his hands into his shorts as they made their way to her new room.

‘I remember liking sex before the war, but I’ve lost interest now. I like it in this century though, everyone’s open about being queer, and I’m slowly getting the hand of the different gender terms.’ He noticed how she flinched when he walked too close and moved back a bit, watching her shoulders relax.

Meghan seemed happy to walk in silence the rest of the way, so Bucky allowed her to do so, relaxing when they finally got to her new room. He walked in with her permission and sat the bag he was carrying down on the bed before exiting and leaning against the doorframe with a slight smile, gesturing to the plain white walls that surrounded them.

‘You can design it any way you like. Paint it yourself or you can even get a designer to come in to do it. Tony pays for anything we need.’

‘Sounds like a good guy.’

‘He’s decent.’ Bucky shrugged, still feeling bad for hurting the man in the past but he wouldn’t be telling Meghan any of that.

They stared at each other for a moment, the fact that she wasn’t attacking him amazing Bucky, before she finally spoke up, gesturing to the white walls of her bedroom.

‘What did you do to yours?’

‘I got a designer in to paint a tree on my wall, with symbols of my past lives on it as the leaves.’ He explained, smiling when she did.

‘Sounds like a good idea.’ She hummed, approaching closer to the White Wolf and leaning against the wall beside him, staring into her room from his angle.

‘I might do it on the wall you see when you walk in.’ She sounded like she was pondering an idea, forcing Bucky to speak up out of curiosity.

‘Might do what? Fuck!’ He yelled out when the heel of the shorter woman’s hand struck his nose, sending him stumbling back and out of reach of the door.

Bucky held his hand to his nose, bringing it away to find blood staining the bandages he’d wrapped on his hands for punching. Looking up at Meghan, he saw her shrug with a smirk and wave.

‘Been wanting to do that of my own sound mind since I got here. I’m painting koi fish on the wall, by the way.’ She told him in a mellow voice, shutting the door and disappearing out of view, leaving Bucky in the hallway with a bleeding nose.

He let out a laugh of disbelief at her conscious, un-brainwashed action to punch him then stood up, smiling just a little bit as he wandered to the medical ward, happy that Meghan had her real self back. Even if that self wanted to sock him in the nose.


	8. 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! New chapter :3 Comment if you like it, please please please cause I'm so lonely and need more friends <.<
> 
> Enjoy!

‘So, tell me again how she managed to break your nose without you having time to defend yourself?’

Bucky glowered at Sam while Penny examined his face, pressing against the side of his nose which caused him to wince, dull pain radiating behind his eyes and through his head from the pressure.

‘ASTRA, scan Bucky’s face for signs of fracture.’

‘Yes, Doctor Adams. Scanning zero percent in progress.’

The woman proceeded to remove the gauze from the White Wolf’s nostrils, nodding when his nose didn’t continue to bleed and patting the man’s shoulder.

‘The bleeding’s stemmed. You’re lucky you heal fast; you’ll only be out of commission for a week.’

‘Only if it’s broken.’

‘Scan complete. Fracture detected.’

‘You were saying?’ Penny smirked at him, tilting her head before crossing the room to crack open a splint to keep his nose from moving while it healed.

Sam snorted in amusement from where he sat watching him get patched up, running a hand over his hand while the other grumbled under his breath where he perished on the examination table. He narrowed his eyes when his friend laughed, trying to ignore the ache in his skull from being hit in the face by a super soldier.

‘You know, you didn’t need to come here and support me. It’s a broken nose, not a gunshot.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself, I don’t even come to support you for a bullet in the liver. I’m just here to watch you stew over the fact that you got beat up by a girl.’ Sam teased, earning a scathing glare from Penny as she walked back over with the splint to stick to Bucky’s nose.

The Falcon grinned sheepishly at her in response, glancing over at the automatic doors to the medical ward and waving to Peter when he walked in with Morgan sitting on his hip with her face tucked into his neck.

‘Hey, it’s the two mini-Starks.’

Peter simply rolled his eyes at Sam’s comment, wandering over to Penny while she applied the splint to Bucky’s nose.

‘We need a Hello Kitty band-aid for a paper cut.’ The teen smiled at the doctor, patting the seven-year-old’s back as she held out her pinkie finger for Penny to inspect.

The woman finished attaching the splint to the White Wolf’s nose before turning to face the little girl and her stepdad, taking her hand to evaluate the cut.

‘Ouch, kiddo, that looks sore. Lucky for you, I bought more band-aids before work this morning.’ She smiled, opening one of the higher cupboards and bringing out one of the small pink plasters, proceeding to wrap it around Morgan’s finger.

‘There we go, all fixed.’ Penny chirped, tapping the girl’s nose, and throwing away the band-aid wrapping.

‘What do you say to Doctor Adams, Grasshopper?’ The young man holding his stepdaughter cooed to her, smiling when she spoke up without arguing.

‘Thank you, Doctor Adams.’

‘You’re welcome, Little Stark.’

The two Starks started heading for the automatic doors again, only for Morgan to speak up again and get Bucky’s attention.

‘What happened to your nose?’

Bucky offered the little girl an awkward smile in response to her question, shaking his head.

‘I fell over, no big deal.’

‘Did she break their nose?’ Peter snickered at Bucky’s weak lie, raising an eyebrow at the older man, and smiling innocently when he was glared at.

The soldier just nodded, rubbing his head in silence, and lowering his eyes. He could hear Sam trying to stifle more laughter as Morgan piped up again.

‘Who broke your nose? Is there a new Avenger I haven’t met?’ She asked curiously, looking up at Peter for an answer who nodded, tapping her nose, and brushing her fringe away from the big brown eyes she got from Tony.

‘You can meet her another day, Grasshopper. Right now, it’s dinner time and we need to get home in time for whatever your dad has cooked up tonight.’ He smiled at her, carrying her out of the room while the little girl waved to the people left in it.

As the doors shut behind the two Starks, Sam stood up and patted Bucky’s shoulder.

‘Come on, old man, we have takeout waiting on us. You joining us, Doctor Penny?’ He asked the young woman, wrapping his arm around Bucky’s shoulders to get him off the exam table.

Penny shook her head while she disposed of the bloodied gauze that she’d removed from the soldier’s nose, throwing anything with his blood on it into the incinerator as per protocol. It was bad enough they had to deal with failed Captain America experiments from abroad, they didn’t need any of the hyper-intelligent, hyper-moronic Americans to steal his blood and start making new super soldiers, or worse clones of the original.

‘Sorry boys, I got a hot date and penises like you are not welcome.’ The doctor teased, patting Sam’s cheek when he pouted before tying her hair back anew and switching her lab coat out for the leather jacket hanging on the hooks by the door.

Sam snorted at her reply, shrugging as they all wandered out of the medical ward and Penny locked the automatic doors with the unique keycode she had as a doctor of the compound.

‘You’re missing out, Doc, New York pizza is the best pizza.’

‘Hopefully Sparky and Firecracker ordered more than vegetarian shit this time, though. Wouldn’t eat another mushroom to save my life.’ Bucky grouched, letting out a little grumble when his words forced another wave of pain through his skull.

‘You wouldn’t eat any vegetable to save your life, Cyborg, all you eat is meat and carbs.’

‘I do eat vegetables, asshole, I just like them better when they’re mixed with meat.’ The old soldier argued, listening to Penny laugh at them bickering like an old married couple.

The trio continued on their way to the living quarters, getting in the elevator and waiting while ACDC played over the radio and the metal and glass box ascended. Bucky stared through the glass as the elevator moved up, watching the aircraft hangar. When they finally reached the living quarters floor, he stepped out, holding the door for Sam, and giving a wave to the doctor.

‘See you tomorrow, Doc, have fun on your date.’

‘Have fun eating with the girl who broke your nose. Bye, Sam.’ Penny waved to them both as the doors shut again and she kept going up to get to the car park.

Afterwards, the two Avengers headed for the Indigo kitchen, Bucky keeping his eyes shut near bright lights to avoid causing himself more pain. The kitchen and adjoining living room were already bustling with energy when they got there, Luka sitting between Loki’s legs on the floor with everyone else scattered around on pillows either on the ground or the couches.

‘Hope you’re hungry! We ordered ice cream too.’ Fern’s voice piped up from the kitchen, the teen’s freckled face appearing from behind the counter with a slice of pizza situated in his hand.

Bucky gave the boy a pained smile, ruffling his hair when he got close enough to him before sitting down beside Garnet and nudging their arm.

‘Your mission go okay?’

The other nodded, running a hand through their red hair and sipping from the beer bottle on the coffee table. They offered the soldier their hand, letting him see the bandage wrapped around it.

‘Got knifed by a little shit assassin in Lithuania. What happened to your face?’

Bucky shrugged, trying to act like Garnet’s injury was far more noteworthy than his until a group of voices caught his attention in the hallway, one voice in particular making his nose hurt just a little more.

He glanced over at the door as Meghan entered surrounded by Kameryn, Orchid and Peregrine, all three of them talking animatedly with the new young woman in their gang while Daylighter’s eyes met Bucky’s. Against what the man had seen and concluded about her personality, Meghan smirked at him and gestured to his nose while the other girls moved to collect pizza for themselves.

‘That’s a good look on you.’ She mouthed to him, waving like she had after she hit him before following along behind her friends.

He noticed how unsure she looked about the pizza, like she didn’t even know if she would like it. Part of him felt bad seeing her struggle with life outside of being a killing machine, he remembered what that felt like. About to stand up and talk to her so he could help, he leaned his hands on the couch but retreated when Harley approached to help her. Bucky frowned, not sure why he was so unhappy that he wasn’t the one helping her but going back to his food anyway.

Cracking open a beer from the pack on the table, he heaved out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck and brushing his hair away from his eyes. He caught Garnet observing him with their red eyes and glanced over to stare at them, glaring back despite the pain that the expression caused behind his eyes.

‘What?’

‘You and the new girl seem chummy.’

‘She broke my nose, Net.’ He argued, gesturing to the bruising that was beginning to form around his nose and eyes.

Garnet shrugged, sipping their beer.

‘All couples have spats.’

Bucky stared at them in disbelief, his face turning a faint red from a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

‘We’re not a couple and I don’t think fracturing someone’s bone and ripping their calf open counts as a spat.’

‘I don’t know, Buckaroo, talking about her is making your face really red.’

‘That’s just my frustration at you heating up my face with anger.’ The soldier huffed, going quiet when Meghan and the other girls approached the main group.

Everybody that was home that night settled down comfortably on pillows and blankets covering the living room, munching on their pizza in companionable silence until Fern spoke up from where he was perched on the back ledge of the couch beside Peregrine.

‘Why don’t we watch a movie?’

‘Oh, didn’t that film about Iron Man come out recently? I bet we can find it if Tony hasn’t blocked it already!’ Kip grinned, leaning back from their position on the back of the other couch to grab the remote from the kitchen counter.

Fern rolled his eyes at Kip’s acrobatics from their seat, shaking his head.

‘We don’t need that thing, Kippy. ASTRA, can you switch on the television in the Indigo living room?’

‘Of course, Tree-Hugger. What would you like to watch this evening?’ The feminine voice of their newest AI system responded immediately, making Fern’s gaze on the screen turn into a glare directed at Sam.

The Falcon sat with a proud smirk on his face, his arm resting over the back of the couch where Natasha sat beside him.

‘Sam!’

‘What?!’

Fern huffed when Sam just grinned at him, crossing his arms over his chest, and going back to talking to ASTRA.

‘Search for “A Cheap Trick, A Cheesy One-Liner, and the End of the World”.’

‘Searching now, Tree-Hugger.’

The teen grumbled curse words under his breath while the rest of the room snickered under their breath. Bucky noticed that even Meghan joined in on the laughing, causing him to smile too and watch her for a little longer. It was nice to see her looking so at ease after only a day at the compound.

‘You should go and talk to her, you know.’ Garnet’s whispering voice reached his ears while he stared in Meghan’s direction, distracting the soldier from his focus just as the young woman turned her head, starting to notice his eyes on her.

‘I have nothing to talk to her about.’

‘Just because she smashed your nose and gave you a scar as long as your forearm doesn’t mean you can’t talk to her. You have a lot in common, ya know, both of you being human experiments and being extremely socially awkward.’ The other hero grinned, nudging his arm with theirs playfully and causing Bucky to glare at them.

‘You’re an asshole.’

‘Honey, you tell me that every day, it’s getting old. Go on.’ They kept nudging him to get a reaction until Bucky finally gave up, shoving Garnet off of his arm and shuffling over to the kitchen reluctantly where Meghan was getting a can of Pepsi from the fridge.

The White Wolf approached the girl apprehensively, eyeing how she wasn’t drinking like the others suspiciously.

‘Not drinking?’

‘Shuri said to avoid alcohol for a week after the end of treatment. How’s your face?’ She spoke in English with a smirk, reaching a hand out to prod at the bruising that was spread out to his cheeks.

Bucky winced at her touch but didn’t move away, simply glaring down at her.

‘You know that hurts.’

‘I know, that’s why I’m being gentle.’ Meghan smiled up at him, moving her thumb down to rub at the side of his mouth and bringing it away covered in pizza sauce.

‘You’re a messy eater.’ She hummed, licking the sauce from her thumb, and looking away with red cheeks when Garnet yelled over to them from the couch, Fern perched on their lap now.

‘Get a room, Buckaroo!’


End file.
